The present Invention relates to a new and distinct cultivar of Echinacea plant, botanically known as Echinacea purpurea, and hereinafter referred to by the name ‘Alaska’.
The new Echinacea is a product of a planned breeding program conducted by the Inventor in Obdam, The Netherlands. The objective of the breeding program is to develop new compact Echinacea cultivars with attractive inflorescence coloration.
The new Echinacea originated from a cross-pollination in 1999 of two unnamed selections of Echinacea purpurea, not patented. The new Echinacea was discovered and selected as a single flowering plant by the Inventor in a controlled environment in Obdam, The Netherlands in 2001 from the resultant progeny of the cross-pollination. The new Echinacea was selected on the basis of its compact growth habit, attractive ray and disc floret coloration and attractive inflorescence coloration.
Asexual reproduction of the new Echinacea by divisions was first conducted in Obdam, The Netherlands in 2002. Since then, asexual reproduction by divisions has shown that the unique features of this new Echinacea are stable and reproduced true to type in successive generations.